Concrete Ways to Turn Back the Gun Lobby’s Agenda

Dec. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Hours before Adam Lanza used his
mother’s semi-automatic rifle to commit mass murder in a
Newtown, Connecticut, elementary school, the Michigan
Legislature passed a law to allow concealed weapons in public
schools and day-care centers.

The juxtaposition shows just how difficult the politics of
gun control will be. Yet the basic concept is simple: The people
who want most fiercely to obtain and use guns include many of
the same people whose access to guns society most needs to
restrict. In the mass shooting in July in Aurora, Colorado, the
killer’s actions were lawful almost until the moment he began
firing. If the preparations of mass murder are legal, then the
law is an accomplice to madness.

Whether the Newtown shooting marks the peak of such madness
or merely a gruesome landmark on the trail of sorrow depends in
part on the weeks ahead. In state capitals and in Washington,
advocates and legislators must quickly seize the initiative. Is
this politicizing the tragedy? Yes, it is. But no more so than
the campaign to push guns into every corner of American life --
including the corner bar. The retreat of gun control is over.

In his eulogy for the dead of Newtown, President Barack
Obama said he would “use whatever power this office holds” to
stop the violence. Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein of
California, whose own life was scarred by gun violence, has
promised to introduce a ban on the sale, transfer and
importation of assault weapons, along with a ban on ammunition
clips, drums and strips that hold more than 10 bullets. (Lanza’s
held 30.)

Engagement Needed

We support Feinstein’s proposal, and we eagerly await the
president’s agenda. What matters is that they contribute to a
politically coherent long-term strategy for regulating guns.
That will require politicians to make shrewd decisions and
voters to remain engaged for the duration. It’s good to know
that a Democratic president is paying attention and that
California’s senior senator is on the case, but success will be
measured by Republicans and Midwestern states.

Arguably no part of this work is more important than
establishing, once and for all, a system of comprehensive
background checks. Brady Law background checks have stopped more
than 2 million gun sales since 1994. It is impossible to know if
lives were saved as a result, or how many. Still, one-third or
more of gun sales remain unregulated in the secondary market,
which includes not only gun shows but also private sales between
individuals. (The Columbine killers obtained their guns this
way.) No gun should be sold in the U.S. without the buyer’s
identity being checked against a national database.

This is not controversial. According to a survey released
in July by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, even 74 percent of
National Rifle Association members support criminal background
checks. (Michael R. Bloomberg, the founder and majority owner of
Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP, is the co-founder and co-chairman of Mayors Against Illegal Guns.)

A background check wouldn’t have prevented the Newtown
massacre. No such cure-all exists or ever will. But Feinstein’s
ban on high-capacity magazines might have slowed down the
slaughter, potentially saving lives. And it would prohibit
future sales of certain military-style assault rifles.

The shooter in Aurora bought his arsenal legally. No red
flag was raised in the process of his rapid acquisition of three
very powerful guns and more. Unless we are heedless of public
safety, we owe it to ourselves and our children to do all we can
to prevent 30,000 deaths and 100,000 shootings a year. More
comprehensive background checks, with an alert system for
suspicious behavior, is a good start.

The gun lobby, however, led by the NRA, has devoted itself
not to closing dangerous loopholes, but to creating them. The
“Stand Your Ground” laws enacted in Florida and elsewhere at the
NRA’s behest all but legalize mayhem, provided it’s committed
with a gun and without witnesses. The shooter need only claim he
or she felt physically threatened before firing.

Narrow Campaign

Similarly, the widely successful push to bring guns into
schools, churches, bars, sporting events -- essentially every
public venue in American life -- is part of a narrow political
campaign that romanticizes and fetishizes firearms, all the
better to sell them. In all of these instances, we are told the
right to carry a gun is paramount to all others, including an
employer’s right to maintain a safe workplace.

For sensible gun laws to succeed, that runaway agenda must
be checked and the NRA’s marketing of fear and loathing must be
consistently, publicly repudiated. This doesn’t involve hunters
or sportsmen -- who shouldn’t have their Second Amendment rights
abridged. The gun industry now cultivates consumers interested
in “tactical” military-style weaponry. Meanwhile, the industry’s
top spokesman, NRA Chief Executive Officer Wayne LaPierre, sells
a hefty side of paranoia, intoning darkly about “a massive Obama
conspiracy to deceive voters and hide his true intentions to
destroy the Second Amendment.”

Gun crackpottery might be more easily ignored if the U.S.
hadn’t produced 1 million gunshot victims in the past decade,
even as crime broadly declined. Anyone who doubts the influence
of culture on the gun debate should take stock of the silence
emanating from the NRA after the Newtown tragedy. Likewise, on
Dec. 16, NBC’s “Meet the Press” invited 31 senators on the show
to articulate their pro-gun rights views. According to host
David Gregory, all declined.

The fight for sensible gun laws won’t be won in Washington
alone. It will take place in Tallahassee and Lansing, Denver and
Hartford. It will take place in towns and villages -- and voting
booths -- across the country.

Like race relations or gay rights, gun regulation will be a
product of cultural change along with legal reform. The entire
nation has a role to play. The first move, however, belongs to
Washington. Mr. President?